TNT’s The Closer went out with a “bang” in more ways than one, drawing 9.1 million total viewers to its Monday-night series finale — up 52 percent week-to-week and off just 100,000 viewers from the acclaimed drama’s all-time high (set by the Season 3 finale).

TNT’s The Closer, in the series’ penultimate episode, closed the chapter on the mystery of the leak who was feeding inter-departmental intel to Peter Goldman, the bulldog lawyer who’s been suing Brenda, the LAPD, and the city of Los Angeles for a “pattern of denying suspects their constitutional privilege to a fair trial.”

It was a good enough beginning of the end for TNT’s The Closer, which resumed its seventh and final season on Monday night with 6.1 million total viewers — the largest audience for a returning summer drama — and 1.2 mil landing in the coveted 18-49 demo.

This Monday at 9/8c, the TNT hit that drove home the cabler’s “We Know Drama” mantra kicks off the first of its final six hours, and things are not looking good at all for the titular Brenda Leigh Johnson (played by Kyra Sedgwick). …READ MORE